Monday, March 31, 2014

1. What do you think are the most intense challenges for teens in Grade 8?

I believe that probably the most difficult or challenging problem that teens have during 8th grade is probably body image. I believe this primarily because all of the girls and some boys talk a whole lot about the way they look and what other people think about them. This affects relationships and peer bonding making it in-turn one of the must difficult challenges teens in 8th grade must face.

2. How can we deal with pressures/expectations to have a certain body image, or to fit in, or to handle our friendships or engage in dating relationships?

Well, we can ignore peer pressure and do "our own thing" so to speak. One of the most challenging things for a teen to learn is the fact that being different is ok and that if you are different than your friend you shouldn't feel bad. This is a challenge that many teens face in their day-to day lives, and it must be overcome.

SLC Reflection

Over the past 3.5 weeks I have been taking the interesting and culminating class known as Health, and I can honestly say my performance, listening, and overall skill in the topic have improved tenfold. I can truthfully say that I have truly begun o immerse myself in the topics of health, and teen relationships so that I am more prepared for future courses and experiences. I chose this artifact because it was rally the last in-class assignment that we had, making it an overall sum of the class. Also, this can show some of the knowledge that I have gained throughout Ms. Roy's lessons, which if you compare with my previous knowledge is much greater. I really hope that I am able to improve much more as I ascend into high-school so I can get as much out of the class possible.

Friday, March 28, 2014

This year I feel as if Geography has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding classes I've had this year. I love Geography, and I felt that throughout the course so far there are challenges you will have to face, probably my biggest challenge was the Unit Test. Every time I thought about it I was afraid I wouldn't do well but I noticed after I got it back that this was a perfect reflection of the effort I put into it. When I saw that I had received full credit it was a feeling of true satisfaction, I studied, produced, and performed my knowledge to the best of my ability and I believe the grade I got was the grade I deserved. So, I hope that as the year comes to an end I put as much effort into every Geography assignment so I can produce insightful, well thought-out material and receive the grade I deserve for it.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Joanna is one of the top athletes at the school. She plays volleyball, football and futsal. She always goes to practice at school, and each evening she also goes running for an hour. On the weekends, she plays a sport with her brothers for 2-3 hours per day. She eats regular meals, but sometimes, if she eats a meal and then goes to play a sport, she feels nauseous and throws up. Sometimes, if she has eaten a big meal, but needs to go to practice soon after, she makes herself vomit, so she doesn’t feel uncomfortable with a full stomach during the game. Joanna wants to make sure she maintains a good body weight and weighs herself every second day. She is also very preoccupied by how much and what she eats. Every few months she goes to the doctor and dentist for regular check-ups. Both the doctor and dentist were worried about Joanna and spoke to her mother. The doctor was worried, because Joanna had not had a menstrual cycle in 5 months. Her dentist was also worried, because he had noticed that the enamel on her teeth was thin and that she had some swelling in her mouth. Her mother spoke to Joanna about this, but Joanna said to her mother, not to worry, lots of athletes don’t have menstrual cycles when they are training hard. She also said she would try and brush her teeth more in order to protect her teeth enamel. Her mother is still worried.

Questions

1) What physical signs of an eating disorder is Joanna developing? Well, Joanna is developing two eating disorders; Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa. Some signs that can indicate this for us is the fact that she not only tends to over-exercise but she also forces herself to vomit so she doesn't feel uncomfortable during her activities. The physical signs that she is developing are swelling of the mouth, teeth enamel loss, extreme thinness (anorexia).

2) What emotional/mental/behavioral signs of an eating disorder is Joanna developing? Aside from physical characteristics Joanna is also developing emotional signs that indicate potential eating disorders. These are: preoccupation with body weight, intense fear of becoming fat, and difficulty expressing feelings, such as when she spoke to her mother.

3) What eating disorder do you think she has? Due to the indications given in the previous questions I have concluded that Joanna has Bulimia and may develop Anorexia Nervosa if she continues these eating patterns.

4) What other signs of the eating disorder (not mentioned in the story) could you look out for? Well, you could look for self esteem, meaning does she value herself, also her ability to socialize, does she socially isolate herself. These types of indicators can also be signs if a potential eating disorder.

5) What can Joanna’s mother do to get help? Well, to start off Joanna's mother could begin by being in contact with both a nutritionist and a pyshcologist in order to find a health lifestyle, mindset, and eating habit for Joanna. Then she could probably attend an anonymous group to talk about the way Joanna feels. And last she could also support Joanna by encouraging her to stay healthy and not to take part n bulimic actions, with all these thing in mind it is truly possible for Joanna's mom to help her in her fight against eating disorders.

In this clip I am shown quoting parts of the novel and stating specific occurrences to fortify the point I'm making. I also ask questions to my partners such as "what do you guys think", this will help the overall discussion a lot and is something that I have improved since the first discussion. Furthermore, I listened to my group and actually stopped to hear what they had to say, I tried my best not to interrupt, and I allowed everyone to have a fair turn speaking. To finalize I think I think I have improved a lot on allowing others to speak, at the beginning this was a challenge, but now I am more open to other's ideas and allow them to get their ideas out without interrupting them.

Video 2: Clip of an Area I Can Improve On

In this clip I am found doing exactly the opposite of the first clip, here the most obvious mistake we as a group made as definitely, interruption. I think this is probably my most difficult challenge while discussing because there are time when I have such good information I can't control myself. In this video especially I am seen talking over my partners and attempting to "take the floor." This is definitely something I can improve on by not only allowing others to speak, but by waiting until others finish speaking. Next time instead of abruptly attempting to speak I can wait and listen to my partners and speak when it's my turn.

My One Plan: To make my final discussion the best discussion possible there is one major issue that I must build upon and improve on. That one thing is giving others a chance to speak, this is one thing that is a challenge for me because, as an MUN-er I very much enjoy speaking and bringing thoughtful points to the table, I think by giving others a chance I can not only improve the quality of my points but also the quality of the conversation as a whole. y following this one plan and improving on allowing people to speak, I truly think that our last discussion will be the best one of the three.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

1. What was the most enjoyable part of creating your science fair project (not counting the actual fair)? I think the most enjoyable part of the science fair was actually getting to present and actually show our knowledge of the topic we presented. This was nice because we could finally teach people a little bit about color bias and the amount of information that we know about it.

2. What was the most difficult or frustrating part of your project? The most difficult part of the science fair was probably finishing the poster before the actual event, this was difficult because we were stressed to put something together and some details can be easily missed.

3. Pick one project (other than your own) that you found interesting and/or impressive. Describe what you liked about it. One project I really enjoyed listening to was definitely Nic's project. His take on hydrogen batteries and how they work was both easy to understand but at the same time complicated and interesting.

4. What problems/challenges did you run into this year as you worked on your project? What steps did you take to overcome these challenges? Well, one problem was definitely wifi, at times we were without wifi and I couldn’t anything done, we tried overcoming this problem by using our time wisely and doing other things that don’t require internet. Another problem was partners, at one point my partner (name undisclosed) did little to nothing. I overcame this by working productively myself and getting as much as I could accomplished.

5. Thinking of your own project, what would you do differently next time? Address only those factors that you have control over (you don’t have control over getting sick or your mom going out of town, for example). I actually stated some of the things we could have done better in my actual presentation, this ranged from getting more blocks, making a circle of objects around the person so as not to leave any object at a closer distance to them. But, one thing that I could definitely change is to work more efficiently and alone. I feel as if the whole partener thing wasn’t exactly as great as I thought it could have gone so I think if I ever did this again I would be more careful on partner choice.

6. While presenting your project, what do you think you did well? I think that I was really enthusiastic and used a voice of authority while presenting. This aided my audience in hearing the information I presented, I think overall this really enhanced my project.

7.While presenting your project, what do you think you could have done better? I think that maybe I could have been a little more open and welcoming to people walking around, all I said was “do you like colors.” Making my intro more interesting could have gotten me more audience members.

8. Did you work alone or in a pair? Would you choose to do that again? Why or why not? I worked in a pair this time, I usually do, but now I can see that partner choice is probably the most important thing about any project. This is probably because you have to choose people that you will work well with. Next time (if any) I would probably work alone, just because I want to feel the experience and actually be independent.

9. Are you happy with the topic you chose? Would you chose to investigate it again in the future? Why or why not? Yes, I am happy with the topic I chose, it was both an interesting and highly intellectual experience, however I would not choose to research about it again. Due to the fact that It would just be plain repetitive.

10. Do you feel you were prepared enough to present you project to others at the science fair? Why or why not? Definitely, I was very much prepared to present to anyone that wanted to hear. I believe that I was able to prepare so well that the person I presented to actually was able to learn something after hearing it.

11. Did you use the feedback that you were given electronically? If so, in what ways was it helpful? If not, why not? Not really, I only looked at it afterwards to kind of get an idea of what the audience members thought of my presentation. I believe it wasn’t really meant for anything more than that. It was only helpful in the sense so that I could simply see what the general public thought of the presentation.

12.Self Evaluation

Evaluate yourself in these areas. (5 is highest, 1 is lowest) Highlight the number that you feel best describes your overall performance. Feel free to explain your ratings in the space below.

Originality of Topic 1 2 3 45

Knowledge about your topic 1 2 3 4 5

Effort/Hard Work 1 2 3 4 5

Communicator 1 2 3 4 5

(board, speech, etc.)

13. What did this project do to help you become a better learner/better thinker? Well, it definitely taught me patience, It taught me that science fair projects come with a whole lot of tedious work and hardships but with a little patience it can all go very well.

14. What do you think your teacher could do differently next year to help future students be more successful? I think that the teachers could consider changing the actual science fair day to a Friday instead of a Thursday so the students can go home to a weekend instead of another school day.

15. Do you have any other thought about the science fair that you would like to share? None, I believe I was honest and thoughtful enough on all of the previous questions.

16. Here is where you can include pictures and/or video that you took of yourself with your project